asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he is aware that Hugh Beattie, an employee of the Cork Spinning and Weaving Company, who was discharged from his employment on June 18th, 1923, and who had his claim for unemployment benefit (Serial No. 238246) transferred to Belfast, where he resided, was refused benefit by the Belfast Ministry of Labour Authorities, on the ground that having paid contributions in the Saorstát, he could not receive benefit in Northern Ireland; whether a subsequent claim was also refused on the same ground; whether it is a fact that employed contributors who leave Northern Ireland and subsequently become unemployed in the Saorstát are paid benefit, and whether he will have the case taken up again in order to secure for Beattie the benefit he appears to have been entitled to.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - UNEMPLOYED BENEFIT CLAIM.
Hugh Beattie made a claim to unemployment benefit at Cork Employment Exchange on the 19th July, 1923, but before any benefit became payable on that claim he had left Cork and gone to reside in Belfast. Sub-section 3 of Section 8 of the Unemployment Insurance Act of 1920 disqualifies for the receipt of benefit an insured contributor while he is resident temporarily or permanently outside the Free State; consequently it has not been possible to pay Beattie the unemployment benefit to which he would have been entitled had he continued to reside in the Free State while unemployed. His claim was transferred to Belfast at his request, and the question of any benefit to which he may have been entitled on that or any other claim in the Six Counties is one to be determined by the Government of that area.
With regard to the second part of the question, claims made by insured contributors in the Free State are adjudicated upon in the light of the statutory conditions and disqualifications for the receipt of unemployment benefit which are in force in the Free State without regard to the schemes in force in any country, and if the statutory conditions for the receipt of benefit are satisfied and the applicant is free from statutory disqualification, his claim will be paid in accordance with the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act. I am having further enquiries made in regard to the claims made by Beattie in Belfast and will communicate the result to the Deputy as early as possible.